poikilotherm: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 30 is:

poikilotherm \poi-KEE-luh-therm\ noun
: an organism (as a frog) with a variable body temperature that tends to fluctuate with and is similar to or slightly higher than the temperature of its environment : a cold-blooded organism

Example sentence:
The environment controls the body temperature of poikilotherms, although they can heat and cool themselves by moving in and out of the sun.

Did you know?
Poikilotherms are also called "ectotherms" or "cold-blooded animals." Such creatures are the thermoregulatory opposites of "endotherms" or "homeotherms" -- better known to most of us as "warm-blooded animals" -- which are able to maintain a fairly high and constant body temperature relatively independent of the temperature of the surroundings.
"Stenotherms" are creatures that can survive only within a very narrow temperature range. The "-therm" in all of these terms comes from the Greek "therme," which means "heat."

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affable: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 29 is:

affable \AF-uh-bul\ adjective
*1 : being pleasant and at ease in talking to others
2 : characterized by ease and friendliness

Example sentence:
Betty's father was so affable that when her friends came over they'd usually end up sitting and chatting with him.

Did you know?
"Affable" is one of several English words that evolved from the Latin verb "fari," which means "to speak." "Affable" comes from the Latin "affabilis," which comes from the "fari" relative "affari" ("to speak to"), plus "-abilis," meaning "able." Some other "fari" derivatives are "infant," "fable," and "fate." "Infant" comes from the Latin "infans," which means "incapable of speech" and combines "in-" and "fans," the present participle of "fari." "Fable" comes from the Latin "fabula," a "fari" offspring that means "conversation." "Fate" comes from the Latin word "fatum," meaning "what has been spoken" and deriving from "fatus," a past participle of "fari."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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Podunk: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 27 is:

Podunk \POH-dunk\ noun
: a small, unimportant, and isolated town

Example sentence:
After living in a Podunk for most of her life, it took a long time for Hannah to adjust to life in the big city.

Did you know?
"I hear you ask, 'Where in the world is Podunk?'" A correspondent asked that question of the editors of the Buffalo, New York, _Daily National Pilot_ in 1846, then answered himself: "It is in the world, sir; and more than that, is a little world of itself." That writer may have introduced America to the concept of Podunk as an insignificant Anywhere, U.S.A., town, but the place isn't just imaginary; towns with that name have actually existed in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Iowa (and probably elsewhere) over the years. The exact origin of the name is murky, but it appears that "Podunk" comes from an Algonquian word, either the name of a tribe that inhabited an area near Hartford, Connecticut, or a more generic term meaning "swampy place."

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steganography: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 26 is:

steganography \steg-uh-NAH-gruh-fee\ noun
: the art or practice of concealing a message, image, or file within another message, image, or file

Example sentence:
No doubt, the Internet has enriched society, but it has a flip side; terrorists, for instance, can secretly network online using steganography.

Did you know?
"Steganography" is a word that was resurrected after being in disuse for almost 150 years! It was put to rest in the early 1800s, labeled an archaic synonym of "cryptography" by dictionary makers, but was brought back to life in the 1980s as a word for a type of digital cryptography. There is nothing cryptic about the word's origin; it is based on the Greek word "steganos," meaning "covered" or "reticent."

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inveigle: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 25 is:

inveigle \in-VAY-gul\ verb
*1 : to win over by wiles : entice
2 : to acquire by ingenuity or flattery : wangle

Example sentence:
Not wanting to attend the gallery opening by herself, Alice tried to inveigle Glen into accompanying her.

Did you know?
"Inveigle," a word that dates from the 16th century, refers to the act of using clever talk, trickery, or flattery to either persuade somebody to do something or to obtain something through a similar method. What could such a word possibly have to do with blindness? "Inveigle" came to English from the Anglo-French verb "enveegler," which means "to blind or hoodwink someone," from the adjective "enveugle," meaning "blind." "Enveugle" derives from the Medieval Latin "ab oculis," a phrase which literally translates to "lacking eyes." You might say that a person who is inveigled to do or give up something is too "blinded" by someone's words to know that he or she is being tricked.

*Indicates the line illustrated in the example sentence.

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maelstrom: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 24 is:

maelstrom \MAIL-strum\ noun
1 : a powerful often violent whirlpool sucking in objects within a given radius
*2 : something resembling a maelstrom in turbulence

Example sentence:
The mayor has been swept up in the media maelstrom surrounding the laundering of thousands of dollars in state funds by city officials.

Did you know?
"Maelstrom" comes from an early Dutch proper noun that literally meant "turning stream." The original Maelstrom is a channel that has dangerous tidal currents located off the northwest coast of Norway. The word became popularized in the general vocabulary of English in reference to a powerful whirlpool, or something akin to one, in the 19th century. This was partly due to its use by writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Jules Verne (whose writing was widely translated from French) in stories exaggerating the tempestuousness of the Norwegian current and transforming it into a whirling vortex.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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majordomo: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 23 is:

majordomo \may-jer-DOH-moh\ noun
1 : a head steward of a large household (as a palace)
2 : butler, steward
*3 : a person who speaks, makes arrangements, or takes charge for another; broadly
: the person who runs an enterprise

Example sentence:
The journalist phoned the rock star's majordomo to request an interview.

Did you know?
"Majordomo" has relatives in Spanish ("mayordomo") and Italian (the now obsolete "maiordomo"), and English speakers borrowed the term from one of these languages. All three words -- "majordomo," "mayordomo," and "maiordomo" -- ultimately come from the Medieval Latin "major domus," meaning "chief of the house." In its earliest uses, "majordomo" referred to the head steward of a royal household. The position was a high one with some relatively weighty responsibilities. Later, in the U.S., the word was used for the steward or overseer of a ranch. Since then, the word's meaning has extended even further; today, "majordomo" can designate any person who takes charge of another's affairs, be they business or personal.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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dolorous: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 22 is:

dolorous \DOH-luh-rus\ adjective
: causing, marked by, or expressing misery or grief

Example sentence:
After listening to Charlene's dolorous hard-luck tale, Jonathan was moved to lend her money for hospital bills, rent, and groceries.

Did you know?
"No medicine may prevail... till the same dolorous tooth be... plucked up by the roots." When "dolorous" first appeared around 1400, it was linked to physical pain -- and appropriately so, since the word is a descendant of the Latin word "dolor," meaning "pain" as well as "grief." (Today, "dolor" is also an English word meaning "sorrow.") When the British surgeon John Banister wrote the above quotation in 1578, "dolorous" could mean either "causing pain" or "distressful, sorrowful." "The death of the earl [was] dolorous to all Englishmen," the English historian Edward Hall had written a few decades earlier. The "causing pain" sense of "dolorous" coexisted with the "sorrowful" sense for centuries before slipping from use in the 19th century.

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thrasonical: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 20 is:

thrasonical \thray-SAH-nih-kul\ adjective
: of, relating to, resembling, or characteristic of Thraso : bragging, boastful

Example sentence:
Bob's incessant bragging earned him a reputation as a thrasonical bore among his coworkers.

Did you know?
Thraso was a blustering old soldier in the comedy _Eunuchus_, a play written by the great Roman dramatist Terence more than 2,000 years ago. Terence is generally remembered for his realistic characterizations, and in Thraso he created a swaggerer whose vainglorious boastfulness was not soon to be forgotten. Thraso's reputation as a braggart lives on in "thrasonical," a word that boasts a history as an English adjective for more than 440 years.

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esurient: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 19 is:

esurient \ih-SUR-ee-unt\ adjective
: hungry, greedy

Example sentence:
Esurient for an even larger share of the local real estate market, the developer made an aggressive bid for the apartment complex.

Did you know?
If you're hungry for a new way to express your hunger, you might find that "esurient" fits your palate. Be forewarned, however, that when used literally "esurient" has a humorous flavor. This somewhat obscure word first appeared in English in the second half of the 17th century, deriving from the present participle of the Latin verb "esurire," meaning "to be hungry." It is also related to "edere," the Latin verb for "eat," which has given us such scrumptious fare as "edible" and its synonyms "esculent" and "comestible." "Esurient" can be used somewhat playfully to suggest an actual hunger for food, but it is more often applied to such things as wealth or power. In the latter contexts, it takes on the connotation of "greedy."

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tattoo: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 18 is:

tattoo \ta-TOO\ noun
*1 : a rapid rhythmic rapping
2 a : a call sounded shortly before taps as notice to go to quarters b : outdoor military exercise given by troops as evening entertainment

Example sentence:
I was awakened by a woodpecker beating a tattoo against the drainpipe outside my window -- alerting other woodpeckers, and me, to his presence.

Did you know?
Today's word has nothing to do with skin markings. That other "tattoo" comes from the Tahitian word "tatau." Today's "tattoo" comes from the Dutch colloquialism "tap toe," which can be translated as "turn off the tap," though it was most often used to mean something like "Shut up! Cease!" The Dutch began using "taptoe" for a drum beat, and then English speakers borrowed the term (changing it slightly, to "taptoo"). It was used especially by the military to name a drum beat (or possibly a bugle call) that signaled the day's end. This "taptoo" most likely led to our "taps," a term for the final bugle call at night in the military.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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Garrison finish: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 17 is:

Garrison finish \GA-ruh-sun-FIN-ish\ noun
: a finish in which the winner comes from behind at the end

Example sentence:
In an amazing Garrison finish, the home team, down by two, scored three goals in the final minutes to win the soccer championship.

Did you know?
Edward "Snapper" Garrison was a 19th-century American jockey known for his spectacular come-from-behind wins. During his 16-year riding career, he won nearly 700 races. By the time he rode Montana to a smash finish in the Suburban handicap in 1892 and rode Tammany to a breathtaking finish at New Jersey's Guttenberg track in 1893, his riding style had so captured the attention of the public that people had begun using the term "Garrison finish" for any victory in which the winner comes from behind. Garrison, who died in 1930 at age 62, was inducted into the National Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame in 1955, the first year of inductions.

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debunk: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 16 is:

debunk \dee-BUNK\ verb
: to expose the sham or falseness of

Example sentence:
The book debunks many longstanding myths surrounding the historical event.

Did you know?
If you guessed that "debunk" has something to do with "bunk," meaning "nonsense," you're correct. We started using "bunk" at the beginning of the 20th century. (It derives from a remark made by a Buncombe county, N.C., congressman.) A little less than 25 years later, "debunk" was first used in print for the act of taking the "bunk" out of something. There are plenty of synonyms for "debunk," including "disprove," "rebut," "refute," and the somewhat rarer "confute." Even "falsify" can mean "prove something false," in addition to "make something false." "Debunk" itself often suggests that something is not merely untrue, but also a sham; one can simply disprove a myth, but if it is "debunked," the implication is that it was a grossly exaggerated or foolish claim.

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cozen: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 15 is:

cozen \KUZ-un\ verb
1 : to deceive, win over, or induce to do something by artful coaxing and wheedling or shrewd trickery
*2 : to gain by artful coaxing or tricky deception

Example sentence:
Five-year-old Mimi managed to cozen a second helping of dessert from her guileless grandmother.

Did you know?
"Be not utterly deceived (or to speak in plainer terms, cozened at their hands)." Denouncing the evils of the times, 16th-century Puritan pamphleteer Philip Stubbes thus warned against unscrupulous merchants. "Cozen" may not seem a "plainer term" to us, but it might have to the horse-dependent folks of the 16th century. Some linguists have theorized that "cozen" traces to the Italian noun "cozzone," which means "horse trader." Horse-trading, as in the actual swapping of horses, usually involved bargaining and compromise -- and, in fact, the term "horse-trading" has come to suggest any shrewd negotiation. It seems safe to assume that not all of these negotiations were entirely on the up-and-up. Given its etymological association with horse traders, therefore, it's not too surprising that "cozen" suggests deception and fraud.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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plinth: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 14 is:

plinth \PLINTH\ noun
1 : the lowest part of the base of an architectural column
*2: a usually square block serving as a base; broadly : any of various bases or lower parts

Example sentence:
The thieves had managed to remove the statue, leaving behind only an empty plinth.

Did you know?
"These ivy-clad arcades -- / These mouldering plinths... are they all -- / All of the famed, and the colossal left...?" In these lines from "The Coliseum," Edgar Allan Poe alludes to a practical feature of classical architecture. The plinth serves the important purpose of raising the base of the column it supports above the ground, thus protecting it from dampness and mold. The humble plinth is usually a mere thick block. It's humbly named, too, for the Greek word "plinthos" means simply "tile" or "brick." English writers have used "plinth," a shortened version of the Latin form "plinthus," since the beginning of the 17th century. The meaning was extended to bases for statues, vases, or busts in the 18th century.

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sanctimonious: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 13 is:

sanctimonious \sank-tuh-MOE-nee-us\ adjective
: hypocritically pious or devout

Example sentence:
My sanctimonious aunt always warns us about the evils of drinking and gambling, but according to my mother, she did those things herself when she was young.

Did you know?
There's nothing sacred about "sanctimonious" -- at least not any more. But in the early 1600s, the English adjective was still sometimes used to describe someone truly holy or pious (a sense that recalls the meaning of the word's Latin parent, "sanctimonia"). Shakespeare used both the "holy" and "holier-than-thou" senses in his work, referring in _The Tempest_ to the "sanctimonious" (that is, "holy") ceremonies of marriage, and in _Measure for Measure_ to describe "the sanctimonious pirate that went to sea with the Ten Commandments but scraped one out of the table." (Apparently, the pirate found the restriction on stealing a bit too inconvenient.)

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tantara: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 12 is:

tantara \tan-TAIR-uh\ noun
: the blare of a trumpet or horn

Example sentence:
"But hardly had we sat down ere we heard the tom-toming of the kettledrum and tantara of trumpets and clash of cymbals...." (Sir Richard Burton, translator, _The Arabian Nights_)

Did you know?
"Tantara" is a shortening of the Latin "taratantara," an onomatopoetic word that in ancient times that evoked the terrible sound of the war-trumpet. When "tantara" entered English in the 16th century, the sound it evoked was a merry one. "Tantara, tantara, the trumpets sound, / Which makes our hearte with joy abound," wrote Humphrey Gifford in 1580. Today, "tantara" is sometimes used as a synonym of "fanfare," a word for a short, lively sound of trumpets that may also be onomatopoetic in origin.

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Croesus: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 11 is:

Croesus \KREE-sus\ noun
: a very rich man

Example sentence:
John D. Rockefeller became an American Croesus by dominating the oil business in the late 1800s.

Did you know?
The original Croesus was a 6th-century B.C. king of Lydia, an ancient kingdom in what is now Turkey. Croesus conquered many surrounding regions, grew very wealthy, and became the subject of legends. In one legend, he was visited by Solon, the wise Athenian lawgiver. (Historians say this isn't chronologically possible, but it makes a good story.) Solon supposedly told Croesus, who thought he had everything: "Account no man happy before his death." These words made Croesus angry, and he threw the lawmaker out of his court. Croesus would rethink Solon's pronouncement later when his empire was overthrown by the Persians. Croesus' name shows up in the phrase "rich as Croesus," meaning "filthy rich," and it has also entered English as a generic term for someone extremely wealthy.

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crackerjack: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 10 is:

crackerjack \CRACK-er-jack\ adjective
: of striking ability or excellence

Example sentence:
Allison's brother, a crackerjack computer technician, was able to quickly fix the problems with her laptop.

Did you know?
The late 19th-century pairing of "crack" and "jack" to form "crackerjack" topped off a long history for those words. "Cracker" is an elongation of "crack," an adjective meaning "expert" or "superior" that dates from 1793. Prior to that, "crack" was a noun meaning "something superior" and a verb meaning "to boast." (The verb use evolved from the expression "to crack a boast," which came from the sense of "crack" meaning "to make a loud sharp sound.") "Jack" has been used for "man" since the mid-1500s, as in "jack-of-all-trades." "Crackerjack" entered English first as a noun referring to "a person or thing of marked excellence," then as an adjective. You may also know "Cracker Jack" as a snack of candied popcorn and peanuts. That trademarked name dates from the 1890s.

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gainsay: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 7 is:

gainsay \gain-SAY\ verb
*1 : to declare to be untrue or invalid
2 : contradict, oppose

Example sentence:
Although he claimed to be astonished by the accusations made against him, Kevin made no attempt to gainsay them.

Did you know?
You might have trouble figuring out "gainsay" if you're thinking of our modern "gain" plus "say." It might help to know that the "gain-" part is actually related to "against." In Old English, "gean-" meant "against." From that came the Middle English "gain-." "Gain-" was joined with "sayen" ("say") to form "gainsayen," the Middle English predecessor of "gainsay." So when you see "gainsay," think "say against" -- that is, "deny" or "contradict." When you do happen to come across "gainsay," it's likely to be in literature. "Gainsay" is a literary, somewhat old-fashioned word that isn't heard much in everyday modern speech.

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colligate: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 9 is:

colligate \KAH-luh-gayt\ verb
transitive senses
*1 : to bind, unite, or group together
2 : to subsume (isolated facts) under a general concept
intransitive sense : to be or become a member of a group or unit

Example sentence:
All of the files have been colligated as one large searchable database.

Did you know?
"Colligate" descends from Latin "colligare," itself from "com-" ("with") plus "ligare" ("to tie"). Which of the following words is NOT tied to "ligare"?

ligature ligament lien rely ally

collocate oblige furl league

"Ligature," "ligament," "lien," "rely," "ally," "oblige," "furl," and "league" (in the sense of "an association of persons, groups, or teams") can all be traced back along varying paths to "ligare." That leaves only "collocate," which means "to set side by side" and comes from "com-" plus "locare," meaning "to place."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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peroration: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 8 is:

peroration \pair-uh-RAY-shun\ noun
*1 : the concluding part of a discourse and especially an oration
2 : a highly rhetorical speech

Example sentence:
The President concluded, in an eloquent and ringing peroration, that it was necessary for the nation to stand together against hardships.

Did you know?
As you may have already guessed, "peroration" is a relative of "oration." Both words ultimately derive from the Latin "orare," meaning "to speak" or "to plead." The direct ancestor of "peroration" is the Latin verb "perorare," meaning "to declaim at length" or "to wind up an oration." "Perorare," in turn, comes from the combination of "per-" ("through") and "orare." The English language also has the verb "perorate," which means "to deliver a long or grandiloquent speech" or "to offer a concluding part of a speech."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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paltry: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 6 is:

paltry \PAWL-tree\ adjective
1 : inferior, trashy
2 : mean, despicable
3 : trivial
*4 : meager, measly

Example sentence:
Nora was struggling to support herself on the paltry wages from her day job, so she began to wait tables at night to supplement her income.

Did you know?
Before "paltry" was an adjective, it was a noun meaning "trash." That now obsolete noun in turn came from "palt" or "pelt," dialect terms meaning "a piece of coarse cloth," or broadly, "trash." The adjective "paltry" first meant "trashy," but currently has a number of senses, all generally meaning "no good." A "paltry house" might be run-down and unfit for occupancy; a "paltry trick" is a trick that is low-down and dirty; a "paltry excuse" is a trivial one; and a "paltry sum" is small and insufficient.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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noblesse oblige: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 5 is:

noblesse oblige \noh-BLESS-uh-BLEEZH\ noun
: the obligation of honorable, generous, and responsible behavior associated with high rank or birth

Example sentence:
"In the Robinson family's circles, public service had long been common; it connoted not personal ambition so much as noblesse oblige." (Connie Bruck, _The New Yorker_, July 23, 1990)

Did you know?
In French, "noblesse oblige" means literally "nobility obligates." French speakers transformed the phrase into a noun, which English speakers picked up in the 19th century. Then, as now, "noblesse oblige" referred to the unwritten obligation of people from a noble ancestry to act honorably and generously to others. Later, by extension, it also came to refer to the obligation of anyone who is in a better position than others -- due, for example, to high office or celebrity -- to act respectably and responsibly.

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doyen: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 4 is:

doyen \DOY-un\ noun
*1 : the senior or most experienced member of a group
2 : the oldest example of a category

Example sentence:
We watched a TV documentary by Jacques Cousteau, the doyen of undersea explorers.

Did you know?
English picked up "doyen" from French in the 17th century. The French term in turn comes from the Late Latin word "decanus," which itself comes from the Greek "dekanos," meaning "chief of ten." A "doyen" can be a leader of a group, such as a diplomatic corps. In this regard, the word has been used to refer to someone who is specifically or tacitly allowed to speak for that group. More broadly, a "doyen" refers to a highly skilled and respected veteran of a particular field. The feminine form of "doyen" is "doyenne."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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cowcatcher: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 3 is:

cowcatcher \KOW-ketch-er\ noun
: an inclined frame on the front of a railroad locomotive for throwing obstacles off the track

Example sentence:
For his entry in the town parade, John outfitted his black truck with a cowcatcher and smoke stack to resemble a 19th-century locomotive.

Did you know?
New Jersey?s Camden and Amboy Railroad was the first in the U.S. to adopt the cowcatcher, adding it to its John Bull locomotive in the early 1830s. But, as the Model Railroader Cyclopedia warned, "don't ever let a railroad man hear you use 'cowcatcher.'" In its heyday, railroad workers preferred the name "pilot" for that v-shaped frame which, aside from pushing aside obstacles, helped to guide the train around curves. In the 1940s and '50s "cowcatcher" jumped the tracks and took on a new life in TV and radio advertising jargon. The term was used for a commercial that was aired immediately before a program and that advertised a secondary product of the program's sponsor. Such ads apparently got the name because they "went in front."

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perseverate: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 2 is:

perseverate \per-SEV-uh-rayt\ verb
*1 : to repeat or recur persistently
2 : to go back over previously covered ground

Example sentence:
To ensure the accuracy of his or her data, the scientist necessarily perseverates, repeating each experiment many times and comparing the results.

Did you know?
Looking at "perseverate" and "perseveration," you may guess that the latter was formed by adding a suffix to the former, but that is not the case. "Perseveration" is actually the older term. It has been around since the 1600s, when it was used as a synonym of "perseverance" (which at one time was pronounced, like "perseverate" and "perseveration," with the stress on "sev," instead of on "ver"). In the early 1900s, psychologists adopted "perseveration" for the act of repeating a behavior over and over again. (For instance, continually repeating the same syllable or word might be called "verbal perseveration.") Shortly afterward, those scientists wanted a verb for such acts of repetition, so they changed the "-tion" of "perseveration" to "-ate" and "perseverate" was born.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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rhadamanthine: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 1 is:

rhadamanthine \rad-uh-MAN-thun\ adjective
often capitalized : rigorously strict or just

Example sentence:
The judge took the maliciousness of the crime into account and decided upon a rhadamanthine punishment.

Did you know?
In Greek mythology, there were three judges of the underworld: Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus. Minos, a son of Zeus and Europa, had been the king of Crete before becoming supreme judge in the underworld after his death. Aeacus, another son of Zeus, was king of Aegina before joining the underworld triumvirate. Rhadamanthus, brother of Minos and king of the Cyclades Islands, was especially known for being inflexible when administering his judgment -- hence, the meaning of "rhadamanthine" as "rigorously strict or just."

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